Soybean Sock - FO

I finished my Soybean Socks for Ravelympics - Sunday night - I love them - soft and comfy and a great fit!

Soybean Extravaganza!

Doh, I've been bad about posting here! Another round of the Vegan Sock KAL is in full swing and I've already finished one pair of Soybean Socks using the Provence colorway of Panda Soy:



And I've got another pair in progress using the Blueberries Grapes colorway of Panda Cotton:






-Kala

CO: a.m. socks

hey kids, just to let you all know i'm throwing my hat in the ring for the new vegan sock KAL:

halfway down the first of my a.m. socks by christabel seneque (ravelry link) in crystal palace maizy (colourway: birch bark). get on it - you know you want to!

FO: Stripy Soy Socks

Pattern: Basic Toe-up Ribbed Socks (personal)

Yarn: Knit 1 Crochet 2 Wick (yes, I had a little bit more in my stash)

Needles: Size 4 Knitpicks Options - used one long one for magic loop

Notes: I made these recently for my friend Michelle, to keep her toes warm up in Vancouver, BC. They're a Women's size 8.5, and I used one ball of the green/blue, and about 3/4 of a ball of the solid blue. Notice how despite careful planning, the striping is different at the beginning of the feet, even though it ends up matching perfectly.

K1C2 Wick - Review and FOs

I recently completed two pairs of socks using Knit One Crochet Two's Wick, a worsted weight yarn made of 53% soy and 47% polypropylene, which supposedly creates a fabric that wicks, pulling the moisture away from your body as you sweat. I picked up a couple of balls a few years ago on sale, but just got around to using them this summer.

I used the same pattern for both pairs, Red Dwarf, one in a solid blue, and one in the "Beach" colorway of orange and blue. This sock pattern was written for Wick and features two marine-inspired stitch patterns, fish scale on the instep, and fish tail on the back of the leg.

The blue was made for my husband, who wears a size 10.5 shoe. I used 2.5 balls to create a sock with a leg of about 5 inches. He says they fit him perfectly and are very comfortable.


The orange/blue was made for me, and I wear a size 9.5 shoe. I used two balls exactly to create an ankle-length sock.


This yarn requires a very smooth needle due to the polyproplyene content. I used a size 4 Knit Picks Options 24" circular for the magic loop technique. The nickle needles worked very well with the yarn. It also requires slower and careful knitting to prevent puffs and pull-outs. The construction of this yarn involves a puffy synthetic core with very thin but strong threads wrapped around it. This means that unfortunately it's pretty easy to catch some of the puffy part with your needle and pull it out. When this happens, you can't work it back into the yarn.

This yarn is thicker than typical sock yarn, but a size 4 needle created a nice fabric with it. The socks are nice and stretchy, and quite comfortable. I have a couple more balls I'm using to make another pair but after this, I'm not sure if I'm going to make any more due for me to the snagging issues. My husband really seems to like them, though, so I might make another pair for him.

cheery autumn socks

i finished these yesterday and wrote about them on my blog but thought i'd update this one a bit by posting on here too. these are knit from panda cotton in red cinnamon. i knit two-at-a-time (knitpicks tute), so broke into 2 balls from the start, but as i like my socks short, i think i have enough for another pair (maybe these?):

inspired by some anastasia socks i knitted for a friend a while back, i knew i wanted a spiral pattern but didn't fancy the yarn-overs. so, i just cast on a toe (judy's magic cast-on) and started knitting spirals of purl stitches at various intervals.

after the heel turn, i wasn't sure how to continue the interval spacing, so just distributed the purl clusters randomly through the round and knit on. this resulted in pretty much undistinguishable spacings, so i'll have to console myself with knowing they're different - even if they don't look it.

Crystal Palace Yarns - Bamboozle review and FOs

Crystal Palace Yarns generously donated a few skeins of Bamboozle yarn for me to test earlier this year. I'm slightly embarassed that it took me this long to make them, but I recently finished two pairs of socks with this yarn. (Second pair featured in next post.)

Bamboozle is made from 55% bamboo, 24% cotton, and 21% elastic nylon. It's fairly stretchy but not as stretchy as Cascade Fixation. This makes it much easier to work with than Fixation. The percentage of bamboo to cotton make for an extremely soft yarn, both on your hands, and on your feet! At an Aran (10 ply) weight, with 90 yds per 50 gm ball, Bamboozle is clearly much thicker than your average sock yarn. However, for the purposes of socks, it's possible to use a much smaller needle than the suggested 8-10 (US) and create a firm, soft, fabric good for cozy winter or boot socks.

Initially I had planned to make a single pair of socks using both colors but when the colors that arrived were slightly different than the ones I thought I was getting, I decided to use them separately and make a pair of cozy house socks for both me and my mother. I was also curious to see how much sock could be made from a single pair of skeins, especially given our larger shoe sizes (9.5 and 11). Based on other people's projects on Ravelry, I chose to use a size 4 US needle. I used a Knit Picks nickle Options with a 24" cable for Magic Loop. Both socks were knit toe-up for maximum trying-on-as-I-went with different stitch patterns.

This pair is made with the colorway Herb Garden, using a basketweave stitch pattern on the foot and leg, followed by a 1x1 ribbing for the last 7 or so rows. I used Judy's Magic Cast On for the toe, and a simple short-row heel. I cast off with a K2tog TBL to make the edge stretchy and easy to get on and off. As you can see, they reached ankle-length on my size 9.5 feet, and would be longer if you have smaller feet. I can see that with three balls, they would reach the length I normally knit the legs of my socks.

Overall, I am very happy with these socks. I wore them the other chilly day in the house and they were very cozy. Then I kept them on to meet up with my local knitting group and they were very comfy and not at all sweaty in my shoes. My only frustration was how splitty this yarn can be, since it is composed of many strands of yarn, all of which are 2-ply themselves. Once one of the individual plies was pulled up by mistake, it was nearly impossible to get it to lie flat within the yarn again. This makes me a little wary of wearing them on any wood floors that might have little splinters. However, once the yarn is knit up, it is very firm and not at all fuzzy. I look forward to making several similar pairs for myself for this upcoming cold winter.

Thank you so much, Dr. Laura at Crystal Palace Yarns!

Stained Glass Socks

Hey, I actually finished something! These are just a basic pair of my standard 56 stitch plain vanilla socks - great mindless knitting and comfy to wear. I used two skeins of Crystal Palace's Panda Soy in the Stained Glass colorway and I love the color, very pretty!

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FO: elfine's socks

i got really excited about this FO so asked kala to let me join the vegan sock KAL to share it... i've already blogged about it myself, but i'm Seriously Stoked:


they're elfine's socks by anna bell, knitted with CPY panda soy in green fields colourway with small mods to the stitch count and cuff. and i love them so...

Diagonal Rib Socks

I am so sorry that I neglected to post about my Diagonal Rib Socks......they were quite the 'orphan' project as I kept putting them aside to do other things...

...the pattern is available for free from Knitting Daily - and it's not that I didn't love the pattern - it was well written and quite easily memorized - it's just that I joined the Leyburn Sock KAL - so that had to be finished first - then I had to finish Bridget's afghan before school started back...

Anywhooo - they're finished and I do love them - I used Bernat's Cool Crochet - in 74040 Ebony - they'll be nice trouser socks for this winter...

Berroco Sock Star Contest

This might be old new to some of you but I just heard about it today so I thought I'd share. Berroco is having a cool design contest and one of the yarns you can use is Comfort Sock! Visit the site for complete details and rules, but basically you design and either knit or crochet something from the yarns listed and send it in for judging. The top 8 will win $250 and have their design published in a future Berroco booklet. So get your brains going and get crafting, the deadline is August 31st!

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New colors of Berroco Comfort Sock

Have you all seen the new colors of Berroco Comfort Sock? There are some really pretty colors, much brighter than the first offerings, I couldn't resist getting a skein in Cosmopolitan when I saw them at my lys.













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Project Bag Contest!

I'm having a giveaway on my blog for a knitting project bag so I thought I'd post about it here too. Here's what you could win:

It's one of the newer bags I have up in my etsy shop, it's the Sticks N Skulls Project Bag and it's the perfect size to hold a sock in progress. To enter, all you have to do is a leave a comment on the contest post on my blog telling me your favorite cookie!

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Leyburn FO

I finished the Leyburn socks at camp this weekend.

I'm really happy with these socks - they are fancy and soft and warm and bamboo and neutral and a lot of things that I love...

And I only had a tiny little bit of yarn left - I love it when that happens...

Leyburn Sock Progress

I know it's been a while since I updated you on the Sock progress. I hope to finish this weekend while I'm at a retreat with the Confirmands - I should have ample knitting time there with no distractions. I have a big bag of books I'm taking to read too...

So one sock is finished and the other begun...

First Leyburn sock finished

Tonight I finished the first of my pair. I'm using Panda Cotton in the Muir Woods colorway. I love these socks. They fit so well! I did do a bunch of modification to the sizing, though, including increases in the sole, and going down a needle size partway up the leg.

Getting started on the Leyburns

I really like this new Bamboo yarn - it's very soft and silky - this is the first time that I've used it. I'm using two strands held together.

...so I've started the Leyburn...

I'm just up to the heel...

I like the pattern - it was quite easy to memorize.

Leyburn KAL

It has been decided! The KAL has begun and will run through March 7. The choice was made on the Ravelry board to knit the Leyburn Socks pattern by MintyFresh - it's a free pattern available as a download on Ravelry. Here's a copy of the details and rules that were posted on the discussion board:

Rules and whatnot

KAL begins Tuesday January 27th and ends on Saturday, March 7th.

You don’t have to be vegan to join in but you must use vegan yarn.

Post to this thread and let me know if you’re in.

Please post progress pics and finished object pics to this thread. It would also be nice if you would post fo pics to the blog.

To be entered for the prizes, you must complete a pair of socks.

Prizes will be announced as soon as I figure them out :)

Can't wait to see your socks!

New KAL

Hola all! There is discussion on the Ravelry group about doing another KAL, like the Spring Forward KAL a while back. Please visit the thread if you're interested, thanks!

-Kala

Dottie Sweetie Pies

I finally finished a pair of socks for myself after quite a few in a row for my husband (although I do loving knitting socks for him because he wears them a lot and loves them):



I used my Sweetie Pie pattern and some Panda Cotton in the dotty lolipops colorway, very girlie and fun!

Diamond waffle Socks - Panda Soy

Pattern: Diamond Waffle Socks - Knitty Fall 2007
Yarn: Panda Soy Solid in Twig Brown
Needles: Addi Turbo US 1.5 circulars
Size: M (my husband wears US 10 1/2 shoes)
Modifications: None!
Notes: Each of these socks used 1 skein of yarn and I had about 4 yards leftover from each, just enough to save in case they need darning in the future. I am so happy about getting the pair out of 2 balls instead of having to buy a 3rd skein like I thought I would. They fit my husband perfectly and they are just lovely.

Thanks to Crystal Palace yarns for offering the yarn as a prize in the Ravelry Vegan Sock group summer KAL.